He urges us to think — not doublethink

Raoul Peck uses Orwell's words as a warning in a chilling new documentary.

- BY JOSH ROTTENBERG

JUSTIN JUN LEE For The Times OSCAR NOMINEE Raoul Peck draws on George Orwell's works, including his letters, diaries and novels, for his latest documentary, "Orwell: 2+2=5."

No one goes to Cannes expecting to be frightened by a film about a long-dead British writer. Unless, of course, that writer is George Orwell.

When Raoul Peck's documentary “Orwell: 2+2=5” premiered at the festival in May, the crowd reacted with the startled tension of a horror screening — gasps, murmurs, a few cries — before finally breaking into thunderous applause.

What they saw on screen felt both familiar and terrifyingly current. Peck builds the film entirely from Orwell's words, delivered in a low, steady burn by actor Damian Lewis (“Billions”), repositioning the dying author of “1984” in his final tubercular days on the Scottish Isle of Jura, into today’s world. His vision of power, propaganda and language as a weapon meets a barrage of torn-from-the-news imagery: refugees adrift on boats, authoritarian leaders twisting the truth, AI hallucinations blurring what's left of reality. The film, to be released nationwide on Friday by Neon, plays less like a documentary than a séance in which Orwell's ghost watches his own warnings play out: urgent, relentless, immersive as a nightmare.

Peck says the Cannes reception didn't surprise him.

A SCENE from Raoul Peck's new documentary. “If I can’t mix politics and art, I probably wouldn’t make a project,” Peck says. “That’s what Orwell himself said.”

(Velvet Film)